Strange meetings
by lunalove123
Summary: This occurs in the summer before Neville's 5th year. On the way to Ginny's Birthday Party he meets Luna Lovegood. This is the true first meeting of Neville and Luna. A Neville/Luna ship story.


It was a late summer evening and Neville Longbottom was preparing to go to Ginny Weasley's birthday party. The Weasley's had always been nice to Neville and he felt compelled to go to the party. The problem was that he hadn't been to many parties in his days and he didn't know what to wear to a party. He had decided on a stripped T-shirt and a pair of his favorite jeans. He felt he was ready to leave

After a quick goodbye to his grandmother, who seemed more then occupied with her new stuffed hat, he was off. The Weasley's lived just over the hills so Neville decided to walk to the party. It was a warm night, but there was the feeling in the air that there wouldn't be many more of these nights before it turned to autumn. Neville was going to start his 5th year had Hogwarts this year and he was looking forward to finally being able to drop potions after this year. He also couldn't wait to show Professor Sprout his newly acquired plants, which he was very proud of.

With his thoughts on his new plants he made his way down the hill not noticing a girl who was walking perpendicular to him, they collided into each other and Neville was knocked over. "I am really sorry" Neville said as he was standing up he offered his hand to the girl who had just run into him. She took his hand and stood up looking slightly confused.

Now that she was standing up Neville could see that she was a rather peculiar girl. She was pretty but her choice of attire was rather odd. She had on a sunshine yellow top and a Orange skirt which had images of the strangest creatures Neville had ever seen depicted on it. She had waist length dirty blond hair with a slight curl at the end, which was tied in a ponytail with a bright yellow ribbon. She had radish earrings dangling from her ears and a butter beer cork necklace around her neck.

Even with her strange choice of attire the one thing that Neville noticed first were her eyes. She had silvery grey eyes, which unlike Draco Malfoy's, were kind instead of mean. When he looked at her eyes he felt a pang in his stomach. She had a dazed look that confused Neville.

"That is quite alright, I think we both were caught with a Wrackspurt. I thought I felt some floating around here." She said rather dreamily. She immediately started to swat the air and started to prance through the air.

Neville stared at her with a stunned expression on his face; this had to be one of the strangest girls he had ever met. He didn't know what a Wrackspurt was and he didn't think he wanted to find out what it was either. Hoping to get away from her as soon as he could he started to walk at a brisk pace down the hill. At the bottom of the hill he noticed footsteps making their way down the hill behind him. He turned around to be face to face with the girl he had run over. "Are you following me?" he asked with an air of annoyance.

"Oh no, I am heading to one of my dear friends parties." She replied without sounding offended by Neville's rudeness, "Perhaps you know her, her name is Ginny Weasley she has always been friendly to me and I feel honored to be invited. I hear Harry Potter is going to be there. Do you know him?" She said this all very quickly, which left Neville very confused, how could Ginny invite someone like her? She seemed so strange.

Quickly shaking his head Neville said, " That's where I am heading also, I do know Harry he is a good friend of mine."

The girl looked up at him and looked very surprised, "You know both Ginny and Harry. I must know your name. My name is Luna Lovegood, I am a 4th year in Ravenclaw " then in a rather sing song voice she said, "Whit beyond measure is mans greatest treasure."

At this Neville realized who she was, he had heard about the Lovegood family from his grandmother. According to her the father ran the "Quibbler" which had a reputation of being full of lots of tosh. He knew they went on vacations together looking for strange creatures to prove they were real.

"My name is Neville Longbottom, I am a 5th year in Griffindor"

"Ginny has never told me about you.", she said in her dreamy voice. "To be in Griffindor you must be very chivalrous and brave", she looked up at him and seemed to want to keep their strained conversation going.

When she said this Neville blushed a bit because he didn't really feel like he was either of them, he always thought he would have been better placed in Hufflepuff but the sorting hat had chosen Griffindor. " Ummm… I really don't think that I am either of those things, I am just an oddball who is good at herbology." Neville didn't know why he was saying this to Luna Lovegood of all people. When he looked down at Luna and was surprised to see that her face had suddenly brightened and she had a look of contempt.

"You're an oddball also? That's great we can be strange together. Do you enjoy reading about strange creatures", she looked so excited and was practically bouncing.

"Umm, I really don't know that much about strange creatures. I would love to hear about them though." Neville had no clue why he said this last sentence.

Luna's face practically was shinnying with happiness she had a glow on her face that showed she would take him up on his offer on learning about creatures. "I will happily teach you all about them where should I begin…"

Neville looking for a way out of this was happy to see the Weasley's house just ahead with Ginny waving to them. "Oh look, there's Ginny" at this Luna looked as if she had a great gift taken away from her, but she immediately put on her normal dreamy expression.

"Hi Ginny, I was having a conversation with this boy Neville Longbottom who says he knows you and Harry Potter" she said this acting like Neville wasn't right next to her.

"That's great Luna, I have a lot of food inside so you can just help yourself."

Luna promptly skipped her way through the door and went to the pudding table. As Neville walked by Ginny she softly whispered, "I have never seen Luna so happy. I think she might have a little crush on you".

Neville was stunned at this comment but walked with a little more spring in his step. "_You know she is rather pretty."_ Neville thought this to himself and he entered the party looking for Luna to get to know her a little better.


End file.
